Last August, Freida Gerlitzky landed at Kona International Airport with her husband Levi, toddler son, and four oversized boxes of supplies. Six months later, the young mom of two—she gave birth to her second child in Kona—is balancing life with her family and outreach to 1,000 Jewish souls on Hawaii’s largest island.

And now she knows to tuck that plumeria in her left ear.

In the few months they’ve been here, a small community has grown around them. Israeli businessmen who have made the Big Island home, come by after work during the week, and local families join the Gerlitzkys at their Shabbat table.

Among other things, Freida is mopping floors more frequently. She laughs now, remembering her surprise when she saw everyone remove their shoes before coming into the shul. “They do it out of respect. I want the floor to be clean for them.”

Travelers who may not be looking for anything Jewish are happily surprised to discover Chabad in Kona. “They wouldn’t reach out to their local Chabad centers but after meeting us here, they may connect when they return home.”

Freida and her husband are one of 119 couples from Brooklyn and other Jewish hubs who moved to cities around the world in 2017 to serve as Chabad representatives. Newbies to the way things are done locally, they roll with the punches and find the funny in the frustrating.

The Gerlitzkys with their two children in Kona

Silver Foil Pots

Curacao, Caribbean

Five thousand miles away, on the island of Curacao, Chani Silver was setting up shop for the New Year. Curacao wasn’t hit by the hurricanes that pummeled the Caribbean this fall, but she and her husband Refoel felt its impact.

“Our shipping container got delayed for a month, so we had no furniture and no food. We turned silver foil into pots and used a lot of plastic. It was very hectic, but the people loved it.” Challenges and all, Chani hosted 30 people her first Rosh Hashanah on the island.

In the summer of 2017, the Silvers were invited to serve the Jewish community of this Dutch island. Curacao is no stranger to Jewish settlement. The first to welcome Sephardic Jews in the Western Hemisphere, it features a local synagogue, built in 1732, which stands to this day. Today, the island attracts young business people. And tourists. Lots of tourists.

“I was worried I was going to be bored,” Silver admits. But her days are filled teaching Judaic study classes, welcoming travelers, and hosting a Mommy and Me group. The couple has connected with many locals through creative social events: sixty turned up to participate in a Scotch and Sushi party in their sukkah, thirty women participated in a kosher cook-off and challah bake, and many celebrated Chanukah at menorah lightings across the island.

“People were crying at the lighting in the island’s center,” recalls Silver. “No one imagined that the prime minister and 140 people would attend this public Chanukah display.”

The Silvers of Curacao

Growing A Greenhouse

Middlebury, Vermont

Jewish students at Middlebury College (there are about 350) are not knocking at Davida Murray’s door looking for kosher food. But they are interested in farming and sustainable living. “After walking around campus and town, going to local events, letting people get used to us,” Davida and her husband Binyamin, realized that the rural setting of this top liberal arts college offers fertile ground for “planting seeds of Torah.” Inviting students to help them grow their greenhouse, and planting a vegetable garden together, explains Davida, are organic to study Torah.

“We’ve got chickens. We have an outdoor oven where we’ll be baking artisan challah, and we’ll be living off the veggies we grow in our garden,” she tells Lubavitch International. A model of sustainability.

Davida hopes she and her husband will create the kind of experiences she missed while attending Texas State University. “I want to give them what I wanted—someone to talk to, a free space, a home away from home.” To get that as an undergrad, she would drive an hour away to the closest Chabad, at the University of Texas.

Next semester, the Murrays are planning to roll out new Rosh Chodesh (new month) programming. That too, has something to do with how their garden grows.

Davida and Rabbi Binyomin Murray, Middlebury, VT

Nod If You Mean No

Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Doli Amitai had yet to pick up basic terms in Bulgarian and was using her hands, gesturing, to get by. On her first errand to the fruit market, the Israeli transplant wanted a bunch of those vine-ripe tomatoes. She pointed to them. The fruit vendor put a bunch into a bag. Perfect for salad. Doli nodded. The fruit vendor returned the tomatoes to the tomato bin.

Doli pointed to the tomatoes again. He chose a different bunch. Doli smiled. At least they were communicating. He placed them on the scale and said something. Doli nodded, eagerly this time. The vendor put the tomatoes back into the bin.

In Plovdiv (as in the rest of Bulgaria), yes means no, and no means yes. “Try nodding your head when you mean no,” she says, laughing at the comedy of misunderstandings that ensued.

Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s second-largest and Europe’s oldest inhabited city. Its Jewish community dates back to before the Ottoman conquest in 1364. These days, Doli invites Plovdiv’s Jewish women to kindle Shabbat candles with her every week.

Remnants of a much larger pre-Holocaust community, the local contingency is strong in its identity, less so in its traditions. So with the brit milah (circumcision) of their newborn son, she and her husband Yisrael revived another ancient tradition that Plovdiv hadn’t seen in years. It was a big deal. “Many Jews came, many asked questions,” says Doli, shaking her head.

I am not sure that my children knowing about Jewish ritual, history and lore will make them better people, and yet a part of me feels they should have it in their lives. How can I make it relevant to them? The Torah begins with the creation story, and it is really a story lived by every human being, every day.

It’s got one of the most senior populations in the country. But growing up in Venice, Florida, the children of Chabad representatives are bringing new life to the city’s elderly. In the process, they learn to relate with compassion and kindness.

On their first wedding anniversary, next month, Rabbi Mendy and Menucha Blank will be moving to the S. Francisco Bay area to open Chabad of Emeryville. It’s an up-and-coming commercial city, headquarters to companies like Pixar and LeapFrog, nestled between Oakland and Berkeley and directly across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Today in Jewish History, the passing of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944), father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. After being arrested by Soviet authorities and interrogated for his activism on behalf of the Jewish community, he was sentenced to five years of exile and sent to Chi’ili, Kazakhstan, in the remote Aqtobe region in Central Asia. He passed away in Almaty, Kazakhstan, physically weakened by the hardship of his exile

Chabad's Rabbi Ruvi New shared his 10-year battle to build a synagogue at the U.S. Department of Justice event Religious Liberty: Our First Freedom and Why it Matters. Opening remarks were made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, after which Rabbi New and a panel of religious leaders examined the state of religious justice in the United States.

The countercultural movement of the sixties and seventies was the segue to a period of great spiritual ferment. Inspired by the zeitgeist, young Jewish rebels struck out in search of their own truth. Outriders of the baal-teshuvah movement, Meir and Miriam Rhodes reflect on their life journey.

It’s a long way from Sweden’s cold winters where Rabbi Berel Namdar grew up. He and his wife Tzivia, originally from Tennessee, are moving to Singer Island, Florida, where they will be opening Chabad of Singer Island and the Beaches, the 18th center in the Palm Beach area.

Prison reform is a buzzword among politicians and lawmakers, but one rabbi who can report on the efficacy of rehabilitation from within, says the impact cannot be overstated. “A prisoner’s existence is painful, but these guys are on fire with the idea that by looking for opportunities to give they can choose to live.”

On their first wedding anniversary, next month, Rabbi Mendy and Menucha Blank will be moving to the S. Francisco Bay area to open Chabad of Emeryville. It’s an up-and-coming commercial city, headquarters to companies like Pixar and LeapFrog, nestled between Oakland and Berkeley and directly across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Mussi Sharfstein | Thursday, August 2

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